Songs for the Dream Giver
by Lahiwe
Summary: Prose doesn't seem to do justice to the mystic beauty of Pocahontas's experience. She's a poet at heart. Listen as she tells you the story of how her story came to be. Starts chronologically from beginning to end, but may include more experiences from different points in the movie later on.
1. Strange Clouds

Face like snow

Like snow

Hair like sun

Like sun

Like a cloud in a river-blue sky

No one to know where it came from

Or where it's going

Like a cloud, I chased you anyway

To ask the question, man or spirit,

Tell me:

Why did you make my heart beat so?


	2. Riddle

New and curious you are to me

So strange

So strange the way you walk

As if the world was passing away before your eyes

So strange the way you talk

Short sounds that fall swiftly to the ground, taking no time to linger

And yet you don't frighten me.

Instead you are like a riddle that the shaman tells,

Like the forest no man goes in because the growth is too high.

I don't understand you, wanderer.

But I will.


	3. Alive

Alive you are

Alive with a heart that is stronger than a drum beating all night long

I feel your spirit's pulsing burning just below your skin

Like a wildcat eager to hunt.

You face the world

Eyes open

Arms open

Heart open

You stand in the wind, feel it brush your cheek, and let it give you life.

The water parts for you

The sky opens for you

Perhaps they sense your piercing green spirit, and honor it.

You are the flame of a thousand hearth fires.

When I am with you I am alive.

Alive.


	4. New World

New World.

This is what you call the land of falling waters, the land of my people.

But your world

Tall cities, stone streets, telescopes, lonely moors

Words falling out of the mouth and into a stick that draws on white leaves,

Making a stain

Deer heads mounted on walls, eyes staring

A king tucked away in a palace, guarded from his people

This to me is like

A whole new universe.


	5. Heartache

My heart aches now when I look at you, John.

Aches, aches with a pain I didn't know it could feel.

Eyes, blue like the depths of the sea

Fire behind them when fixed on me.

My chest tightens-

Lips dry and cracked but soft when you say my name.

My blood pulses-

Rough beautiful hands with strong fingers that wrap around mine.

My breath passes—

Your body straight and strong in the sunlight.

My heart weakens—

Seeing your smile, feeling the laughter rumbling in your chest.

My heart aches.


	6. Broken Spirits

Your spirit is breaking, John.

I see the sadness in your eyes

Your hands curled into hard fists

You are far off, far off from me.

I know because I am far off too,

My soul hidden behind a cold gray shadow.

I cry the tears you won't cry.

If only it could be us in the forest and nothing else

The trees would throw their arms over us

Father Sky would give us the dawn for a quilt to wrap ourselves in.

Instead, the smell of blood and drums is strong

And in your arms, my spirit is breaking.


	7. Earthsong

The sound of the earth is a rising cry.

Like the women who wail and tear their hair at funerals,

The wind whistles and keens, and branches tear at the sky.

The ground moans at the death of its bravest one.

Kocoum, whose face blazed brighter than the red sun in the east,

Whose arrow flew faster than a hummingbird's heart.

And my heart, like the hummingbird's beat, at the sound of his name

Races and pulses.

The black fire in his eyes is gone.

The fierce, strange love is gone.

The hand on my shoulder, telling me to stay—gone.

The air, bitter with the scent of his blood.

A curse is always laid on the slayer of the greatest warrior.

As I kneel, my face touching the ground, too broken for standing,

I know it is laid upon me.


	8. Compass

The path of my life ends with you, John.

All the searching, running, waiting for the curve of the riverbend

In the fast moving streams of life

The knowing that something, something was coming

All of it led me to you.

You stand at the edge of the path, an eternal dawn

Behind you lies only endless night, a blindness that daybreak will not lift.

How can I live without your eyes to see through?

How can I live with a hole in my heart?

Like a deer shot through the leg,

Things that are broken soon fall apart.

Forever.

You'll be with me forever, you say.

But what is forever compared to each long day

Knowing your shining face sleeps in earth?

Oh, spirits of the earth, that I could change the stars!

Why did my arrow point to you

If soon, the compass would shatter?


	9. Red

Red.

The earth and sky are painted red

And the drumbeat, like a heavy heart pumping red, red blood.

My feet fly with the wings of an eagle,

Carrying me to you.

I see the club swing high in the air,

See the gray stone wait for the moment of its descent.

Let it fall.

Let my body and soul splatter out in bits upon the rocks.

You are mine,

And like a mother with her child,

Nothing can take you away and leave me still alive.

Silence.

The calm wind of dawn rolls over the cliff,

And I feel your body tremble,

Feel your soft hair flutter in the breeze.

My father closes his eyes, remembering the face of my mother

For she is here—

Her love sings in the wind.

Higher, higher, the sound of her voice rises into a shout, a cry for life, for mercy.

The world splits, and he sets down the club.

I will never know the eternity of that terror, but the way into your arms was only a moment,

Easier than a baby finding its way to a breast.

I thought the song of love would never end

But the red red blood, splashing through the air

Your body falling to the ground

It strangled that song

And left in its place only screams and screams.


	10. Eyes

Eyes. Eyes. Eyes.

Eyes upon me, all around me.

Blue, grey, green, brown—

Colors of the earth, of the ocean and stormy skies,

Forest grass and sacred earth.

So many eyes, trained on me

As I make my way toward you.

So strange, the things I see in those eyes—

Some stare balefully, like a wildcat stalking prey

Others, fretful, like a skittish deer who glances and tears off into the bush.

And eyes full of questions, like a child walking into the forest for the first time.

I cannot answer any questions.

In their presence, English morphs into a clattering of sounds,

A clacking of teeth and a gargle of air.

My tongue can only form one word:

_John._

And this they understand.

Eyes. Eyes. Eyes.

Your eyes, red and weary,

Full of tears that trickle well-worn paths down your cheek of stone.

I cannot tell you how many rainfalls I have shed,

How many songs, how many prayers I have spent

I can only hold your hand

And look into your eyes.

Look into _my _eyes, John.

I love you.

Can't you see?

I will not let your eyes of blue slide shut,

Never to open again.


	11. Windsong

The wind is singing today, John.

Its melody is strong and true, yet sad—

Does it know the hymns of my heart?

_Whish! Whish! Whish!_

It unsettles the branches, calling for me to hurry—

_Hurry, hurry!_

But I walk slowly, to make time lose speed,

To make destiny wait for as long as it can.

The light of morn is breaking,

And the golden sun illuminates your face.

Oh, beautiful face!

At your tender smile, my heart is torn.

I want to sing to you the sweet sad song of the maidens

Who must send their lovers off into war—

But instead I bend down to brush your hair,

Sink into the curve of your rough strong hand.

I have never questioned the Great Spirit before,

But now I begin to wonder

How the great Plan can be for us to live apart.

And yet—

And yet—

The song of peace that fills the air

My mother's voice in the choir of spirits

The great, splendid dawn above us

The faces of my people and yours

The sound of your heartbeat, no longer faint

I know this path is true.

Let me kiss you, John Smith

And burn the shape of your lips onto mine.

Let me hold you,

And learn the form of your body by heart.

Whisper to me,

That the sound of your voice will echo, ever in my mind.

Touch my fingertips,

That my hand will never lose hold of yours.

_Stay! Oh, stay! _sings the wind,

The wind that knows the hymns of my heart.

But you're going, going, going

And I am running,

_Hurry, hurry!_

My feet pounding like the beat of drums.

The sails are like clouds in a shell-pink sky

A breeze fills them, pushing them onward.

I will add my song, John, to carry you through.

_I'll miss you, my lover._

_Farewell, dear friend._

_Yet not for forever—_

_You'll see me again._


End file.
